Joe's Brothers Son's Wedding In Rock, Hill, SC.

                  Thursday 3/20/2014

We left Greensboro, GA., and headed east on I-20.  After about an hour, we stopped for lunch. A few miles after our lunch stop we crossed the border and entered into South Carolina. Another hour, and we found our night stopping point at the Super Wal-Mart in Columbia, South Carolina.

The next day we headed north on I-77 for another hour.
We normally would not be this far north this early, but we had a wedding to attend in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Joe's brother John's, son, was getting married. This was a great opportunity to see his entire family in one place. Joe family had reservations at the Courtyard Marriott in Rock Hill. We parked our bus in a cul-de-sac right next to the hotel for two nights. (Where the hotel told us to park).  We stayed for free for the two nights. Only a LaFontaine could pull off that, while the rest of the wedding goers paid hotel prices of $109 per night. Joe was a "Happy Camper"!

That evening we attended the rehearsal dinner. (Even though we were not in the wedding- it pays to be family).

At the rehearsal dinner this was our menu. I thought it was a very cute idea. And the food was yummy especially the crab soup, which I guess the restaurant, "The Fish Market" in Fort Mills, SC, is famous for.

The next day I grabbed the opportunity to get a picture of Joe's immediate family, before the wedding. Front row from left to right: Renee ( Joe's oldest sibling) and Kay, Joe's 91 year old mother. Back row: Joe ( the baby of the family), John ( Joe's older brother), and Dave (oldest brother).

That day was the wedding of and Brittany and Mike. It was a outside wedding and the weather was a perfect day in the low 70's.

From left to right Diane LaFontaine ( not me, but my sister-in law- yes we are both Diane Kay LaFontaine), Mike, Brittney, John ( Joe's brother), and Joe's mother Kay.

While waiting for the bridal party to finish their 2 hour photo shoot, the rest of the guests enjoyed an open bar and hors d'oeuvre. Of course I forgot to take a picture until I had ate most of the hors d'oeuvre. I really enjoyed the berry martini's that night.

The wedding reception also had a photo booth to keep us entertained, while waiting for the wedding party to return.

Pictures of the pictures from the photo booth.

It took a lot of convincing, but I finally got Joe to go back to the photo booth to do goofy poses.

We had another set of photo's in different hat's, but we must have forgot to pick them up because I didn't have them the next day. Darn!

After a fun 2 hours of drinks, snacks and the photo booth, the wedding party returned and came in, in two's, doing cute little dance moves.

The first dance of the bride and groom.

And once again I remembered to take a picture of the yummy prime rib, asparagus, broccoli, and can't remember what else we had- why you take the picture before you eat.

After dinner everyone enjoyed dancing. This is Joe' brother Dave's son Ryan and his wife Tiffany coming off the dance floor.

Joe getting down with Tiffany LaFontaine.

"Oh I best hold my stomach in, wifie is taking pictures" Joe thought (my interpetation of the picture he he).
 I missed getting so many pictures this week. I wanted some pictures of Marsha ( Dave's wife) and Selina and Jodie's, (Dave and Marsha's daughter and husband), and Bill ( John and Diane's other son) but it is hard to enjoy the party and be a photographer at the same time.

The next day, we left our cul-de-sac site next to the hotel, and continued north on I-77 to cross the border into North Carolina.

This shot shows all the blooming white Bradford Pear trees along the highway. We also noticed the strange tall single pine tree. When we passed the tree, we realized it was a utility pole/fake pine tree- no wonder it looked so strange.
 After arriving in Charlotte, NC, we found our way to the suburb of Indian Trail, where Joe's brother John lives. We parked our Bus on the street next to his house for 2 nights. Kay and Renee, stayed in the house for 2 nights before flying home. On the 3rd day, I got a knock at the Bus door only to find the Indian Trail sheriff outside. He told me that the neighborhood association wanted us to leave. I went inside and told everyone the great news. John called the association and talked them into letting us stay another 3 nights. After Kay and Renee left, Joe and I moved into John and Diane's home because the night temps dipped down to 27 degrees. On Friday we left and went to the Indian Trail Super Wal-Mart for the next 3 nights. We had not planned to leave yet, and we normally don't stay at Wal-Mart more than 2 nights, but rain and storms were predicted, so we decided to wait it out before moving on. We had a wonderful time at John and Diane's. They were both exceptional host, while we stayed at their home. We really enjoyed our stay and our time with John and Diane, but all guest can overstay their welcome, so it is time to hit the road again.  Tomorrow we leave for the Pinehurst, NC area for a week.

Rain, Inside Projects, & Madison, GA.

                 Wednesday 3/19/2014

We have had many days of rain, clouds, highs in the low 50's. You might say we haven't been "Happy Campers" lately. Also these kind of day's are when you wish you didn't have your adorable little 4 foot pal. One day it just rained constantly. Back at the old home in CR, we had Mallery trained to do her business in her litter box. Our Nest is too small for a litter box, so she needs to go out at least 3 times a day. She is not crazy about the rain either, so sometimes after I get her and myself all dressed for the rain, she get's outside and says, "This is for the birds" and heads back to the door of the Nest. Her yellow raincoat is too short and doesn't cover her bum. Her pink raincoat doesn't have a hood, so I combined both coats to cover as much as possible. She doesn't like the hood because it interferes with her peripheral vision, but mom doesn't want all her head hair sopping wet.

One night before it started to rain, she fussed and whimpered in her kennel every 5 to 10 minutes, while Joe was sound asleep snoring away loudly. She knew the rain was coming from far, far far away, and was having her anxiety of rain moments. Needless to say, it is real hard to fall asleep when just as you start to drop off, you get a whimper, or a whine or if that doesn't work a very softly yip to let me know she isn't going to sleep, so neither are you. After over an hour of this, I  got her out of her kennel, and put her leash and harness on. Next I tied her leash to her kennel, leaving only about 3 feet in length, allowing her to just reach my side of the bed. She got under the covers and slept next to me all night. Early morning after the rain had stopped, she decided she wanted to find somewhere else to sleep on the bed, but her leash wouldn't let her go any farther than by my side. (She has fallen out of our bed 3 to 4 times, and hurt her back, so I can't take a chance on her wondering around the bed anymore in the dark). Because she was frustrated that she couldn't get where she wants to, she of course starts to fuss. I put her back in the kennel, and she started her every 5 to 10 minute whimper, whine, yelp routine all over again. To make a long story short, I was very tired the next day, and Joe, had a wonderful night of sleep. Men just don't know what it is like to be a mother!

In this picture you can see Mallery's cataracts real well, which is causing her all the problems with night blindness. I was told by the vet that they do cataract surgery for dogs now. Who knew! Depending on the cost, maybe it would help with the rainy night sleep problems. It might just be worth it, so she could just sleep with us again. The good thing is Mallery loves it here at the North Shore Resorts, when it is not raining. All she wants to do is go for walks. There are lots of squirrels, so she is constantly smelling trees. I think it reminds her of her back yard in CR and all the squirrels she use to chase.

While we have been here in Greensboro, GA. we have seen these Bradford Pear trees blooming everywhere.

The Bradford Pear trees are only ornamental trees.

They bear a very small non-edible 1" fruit that is not visible due to the green leaves in the summer, but birds eat the seeds and scatter them all over with their droppings, thus wild Bradford trees everywhere.

In the fall the trees leaves turn a deep red color for beautiful fall color.

The only pit falls of this tree is that the flower blossoms are suppose to have a unpleasant smell, which I didn't notice, and they only live to be 25 years old. The wood is weak and they split during wind storms. One blogger recommended the Yoshino Cherry Tree over the Bradford Pear because it has the white blossoms but is a stronger tree that will last.

During our cold and rainy days I found some inside projects to do like make these No Bake Cacao Hemp Brownie Bites. These are very easy to make. You just mix together in a food processor: 1/2 cup hemp seed, 2T cacao powder, 2T dried blueberries, 1T honey, 1T coconut oil, and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Wet your hands with water and roll into balls. Refrigerate or freeze and enjoy. The recipes make 8 balls and here is the Per serving information: (1 ball): 93 calories, 5 carbs, 6 g fat, 4 protein

Another project I did, was to make some homemade hand liquid soap. You need 2 bars of this kind of soap. I wanted the Unscented baby mild soap, but the health food store was out of it, so peppermint was the one I used and it was just fine.

You need to grate the 2 bars of soap into a bowl.

It took me about 15 minutes to do this and I got some good arm exercise to boot! Next you boil 1 gallon of distilled water in a large pot. Turn the water off and then throw in your grated soap. Stir occasionally and let it sit for 12-24 hours. When I went to bed, it looked like yellowish colored water. I though it was not going to work.

In the morning it had thickened up and looked like this.

 I blended it with a mixer because it had separated a bit from the water.

Lastly I poured my handmade liquid soap back into the empty gallon distilled water jug.

Mark your jug, liquid soap, so you don't forget what it is. Because you added soap to the gallon of water, you get about 1/2 a jar more of the liquid soap. You can add the liquid soap to any hand soap pump. (Water down to the consistency you like). I added 2 T to a foaming hand wash pump I had, and added the rest with water. It is a bit weak, so I will probably add 3 to 4 T of the liquid soap next time to the water until I find the consistency I like best. If you want a frugal toxic free hand soap, give it a try.

Yesterday we ran into Madison, GA. which is 20 miles away from Greensboro. As we drove through the historic downtown, we enjoyed all the old homes.

Madison has a population of about 4000.

It had a very cute town square with lots of neat little shops to explore. I wish we had come here earlier during our stay in Greensboro, so I would have had time to return to look around some more.

We were on a mission to go to Wal-Mart and a health food store so we didn't have time for browsing.

I love all the old southern front porch homes.

I read this online about Madison, GA. "Most of its nearly 100 Antebellum homes have been carefully restored, which led to Holiday Travel magazine's naming Madison "The Prettiest Small Town in America." In 2001, Madison was voted the #1 Small Town in America by Travel Holiday Magazine".

Joe has always liked the look of this style of home.

Tomorrow we leave Greensboro, GA and take a road trip to a Super Wal-Mart in Columbia, SC.

Tour of North Shore Resort In Greensboro, GA.

                  Saturday 2/29/2014

I told you in my last blog that we have been at North Shore Resort in Greensboro, GA for about a week.

Today I am going to give you a tour of the resort. We walked up the street from our Nest.

Directly above our Nest are some train car cabins.

Directly below our Nest are more sites including waterfront sites.

There is another motor home behind us,  and two empty sites in front of us that are presently occupied.

We continue up the street.

Up the street from us, there are model homes that can be rented.

On the other side of the street are more hills and sites. Half of the sites up the hill have permanent RV's or mobile homes.

A look back at the model homes that you can rent.

As we walk further up the street, we walk past 3 pavilions.

At the end of the street we come to the Club House.

The Club House has a large deck on the front and side with lots of table seating.

The deck has views of the pool ( which is covered by tarps presently) and Lake Oconee.

Next to the pool we see this train car, thinking it must be a concession stand.

We found this sign on the red train car, which peaked our interest.

In the car, Joe found a smoke filled room with 4 poker machines, and a waste basket full of beer cans.

We follow a road down that takes us down by the lake.

Below the pool, we found 5 waterfront red train cars with decks for rent.

We peaked inside the cars, and found they were furnished very simply.

Docks below the train car cabins.

As we walked along the lake toward our site, you can see the scattered sites with their paved drives and decks.

Closeup of the paved sites with decks.

Another waterfront site.

A look down from the waterfront site.

Further down are more waterfront sites and more docks. The only disappointment is the water is brown with no 0 % clarity. We are just spoiled with the northern lakes.

View of our Nest below the red train car cabins up the hill.

View of our Nest when we are directly below it.

Tennis courts.

On the same street as our Nest, but behind us, is another tarp covered pool. Across the street are the tennis courts.

Another train car used for restrooms and game rooms, next to the pool.

Next to the pool there is another large pavilion with picnic tables.

Back to the red train car cabins above our site.

With 275 sites and much more land to add more sites, this park is very large. I only showed you our street, Sunset Dr., and below to the lake. Most of the park is up the hill from us. The park did a excellent job of planning, as most site have water views.

With us sitting on Sunset Dr., how could I not give you a few more sunset shots I got the evening after touring the resort.
Lake Oconee is the 2nd largest lake in Georgia and covers 19,050 acres. The average depth is 21 feet. The Oconee and Appalachia Rivers flow into the lake. The river was dammed in 1980, producing the lake. 

We have been really enjoying our stay at the North Shore Resort. I have been getting caught up on laundry since we had spend about 2 weeks in no sewer campgrounds prior to this stay. Joe has been cleaning the car and doing some outside RV cleaning, and I have been getting my bills paid, checkbook balanced, and supplies ordered. Mallery got a bath today and next I need to cut her hair. You know, boring normal everyday stuff that full timer RVers need to slow down to do once in a great while. Joe said that when we leave here, we will be about $1,800.00 ahead, after purchasing our Ocean Canyon Properties membership. We are thinking of selling our membership , as it has served it's purpose, providing cheaper RV campground stays on our West coast travels. If we decide to sell it, it will be 1/6 of the price we paid for it. When we decide to sell it, I will blog more information later.